A good article on the upcoming game between UW and Stanford men's soccer on Sunday. Both the UW coach and assistant coach are former Stanford players. (Hopefully the link will come through-I am not a frequent poster)

Epic two-hour-and-forty-minute war between Stanford and UW, with the good guys prevailing with just a couple of minutes left in the second OT. This week's hero was sophomore Ardu Balut, whose game-winning golden goal was his first college goal. And it was a foul on Arda that won the free kick that resulted in the winning goal. Before that, he played great as a holding forward who would receive passes to allow for attacks to build. He's been a 20-minutes-per-game sub, but I think he deserves to start, with Bashti as a change of pace relief for Arda, rather than the other way around, as it has been.

The game was very even, all the way down to penalty kicks awarded to each side that, while legitimate, were still rather soft fouls that might be waved off by another referee. The play ebbed and flowed, with each team having phases of 5-10 minutes where they totally controlled the action and generated chances. Stanford dodged two bullets in the first half while down 1-0 that could've put them in a deep hole. On one, the goalie, Andrew Thomas, came way outside the penalty box to head a ball away, but did so straight upfield, whereupon a Washington player launched a chip shot over Thomas and everyone that hit the crossbar. A Stanford defender was near the goal line, but I don't think he could have stopped it. Shortly thereafter, last year's Pac-12 Freshman of the Year for for UW had a break-away, finding himself 30 yards in the clear of Stanford's defenders, but Thomas blocked his shot.

Stanford was uncharacteristically sloppy on defense, and was vulnerable to odd-man rushes (hockey term) on several occasions. They were fortunate that UW didn't convert any.

There was a big crowd, UW was playing inspired soccer, but Stanford -- as always -- was amazingly resilient. They never let momentum swings by UW, including their two goals (especially the second goal, which was their penalty kick with 3 minutes left in regulation that Thomas partially blocked and could have stopped) get them down.

Best 2 1/2 hours I've spent in a long time. Do look for the highlights on Gostanford.com or the Pac-12 network.

Thanks for the recap DenverCard. Always great to relive the game. What an exciting game to take the family to. First time at a Stanford soccer game, and we sat on the endline where 4 of the 5 goals were.

Couple player comments.
After looking forward to seeing our leading scorer, Bashti, in this game, I was disappointed that he seemed to be a nonfactor in this game. Seemed to be unable to get the ball. Balut on the other hand, very impressive work, winning many balls passed over to him. Especially in the second half when it seemed like Stanford was finding its offensive rhythm.

One player that I have a question about...Mosharrafa. He seemed to have a bad first half. Lost at least one ball, and failed to clear the first score for UW. Just a bad game, or a player we hope/expect to improve?

Finally...headers. Being my first soccer game in a while (at least since CTE found its way into everyday sports conversation), I was surprised at what percentage of touches were headers. And some of them...against absolute rockets. Wow.

You picked a fantastic game to attend. There must've been more than a few UW fans hurting pretty bad after the game. And Jamie Wright, the UW coach and Stanford alum, is probably chewing nails tonight. Based on comments he's made in years past, he's not fond of Stanford's style (less build-up from the back, and more boom it to the forwards at the first sign of trouble in the defense) or the percentage of Stanford goals that come off of set plays, especially during the past few years when Tomas Hilliard-Arce was a monster in the air. In the years that Stanford has been winning national championships, UW has always looked to me to be their equal in terms of talent and scoring chances when they played. Somehow, though, Stanford has found ways to come out ahead most of the time when they've played recently. As well, UW has not enjoyed much post-season success. So Jamie must be wracking his brain to figure out the "special sauce" that's part of Stanford's recipe.

Regarding the players you mention, Bashti is always the darling of the announcers, especially one of the color commentators, Christopher Sullivan, whose son played with Bashti's older brother when they adolescents. And I, for one, really don't understand the fawning. To be successful, Bashti needs other players to get him the ball at the right time. He does best when he can take on the defense while facing them and with some room to operate. At the same time, he can be deft in small spaces (and here I hope I'm not contradicting myself) as he does have good ball skills and instincts. But to my qualitative judgment, he loses the ball by orders of magnitude more frequently than any other player on Stanford. And he often loses it by dribbling right into the opponent's feet, absent any particular elusive or creative play with the ball. He's tiny and plays smaller, which sometimes draws calls but often leaves him steamrollered on the ground. And he's the antithesis of a Foster Langsdorf in harassing the opponent's defense (Foster once rejected right back into the goal a Harvard goalkeeper's routine launch of a kick) as he is not fast, aggressive, or motivated in that aspect of the game. (And therein likely lies at least one ingredient in Stanford's special sauce.) Hence my view that Bashti would be better utilized near the end of the half and end of the game as a change of pace, and as one who would be fresher than the opposing defense. Frankly, I think the team plays better when he's on the bench, even as he is the team's leading scorer.

Mosharrafa has been an integral part of the defense for a few years now. He's tough to beat and a strong competitor. He had a very regrettable "own goal" in the last game v. Cal (in which he blasted a left-footed clearance backwards into the Stanford goal. I think he may be in a slump, but I consider him reliable and someone you like to have playing all 90 minutes.

I'd love to hear any more of your thoughts on tonight's game or of the team.

Bashti did seem pretty quick...when he tried. But he seemed to be jogging half the time and rarely fought for any ball.

A couple observations/questions.

It seemed that UW liked to attack down their left (our right) side more often than not. Does that speak to their strength or our weakness?

Also, #9 for UW seemed to be a sparkplug/disruptor to our defense. He seemed to be a part of every attack, and any time the ball was not headed, he'd be there to whisk the ball away and then dribble penetrate (sorry don't know soccer terminology that well), deep into our area. Fortunately, either our defense collapsed well, or he wasn't a good finisher because there were several times where he had to dribble back out in a circle and reset. I think when he came back in near the end of the second half, our offensive possessions (that had been so strong for much of the second half) dissipated and we started looking like the first half team that wasn't able to link anything and was just trying to parry all of UW's attacks. Unfortunately, it led (not sure if directly, but at least as part of a general push by UW) to the late game PK (sitting on the far endline, I was very surprised at that call. Seemed like incidental contact between two players going after the ball and just bumping each other. I'd seen much worse throughout the game not called where players were aggressively or sneakily shoving players). Anyway, it seemed like we didn't have a good answer for the super quick player with dribble skills.

As for the fans...everything was quite civil. Perhaps because it was youth night. So lots of families and youth teams. After the game ended, people just got up and left. People talking amongst themselves if anything. Then again, I wasn't paying close attention as I was still riding the high from that ending. =)

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